Posted on 09/10/2001 2:08:35 AM PDT by kattracks
Senate panel investigating deceptive sales practices plans to question Florida direct-mail order kingpin Glenn Braswell — one of the most controversial of Bill Clinton's last-minute pardons.
The Senate Special Committee on Aging subpoenaed Braswell to testify today at a hearing here after months of investigating his line of products, ranging from "anti-aging" pills to products that allegedly increase sex drive, Newsweek magazine reported yesterday on its Web site.
Investigators expect Braswell to take the Fifth and refuse to answer any questions. "We're going to have nothing to say," his lawyer told the magazine.
The Braswell pardon sparked a furor after it was revealed he paid $200,000 to Hugh Rodham — Hillary Clinton's brother — during his ultimately successful bid to get a pardon from then-President Clinton.
This panel, however, isn't focused on that 11th hour pardon, which came with a flurry of others that have been scrutinized since Clinton left office, a congressional source told the Daily News.
Instead, investigators want to know whether or not an array of dietary and nutritional products — that often escape oversight by the Food and Drug Administration — actually do what they claim to do.
But his appearance is expected to put the spotlight back on what Newsweek described as one of Clinton's most "curious" pardons, since Braswell had been a big contributor to the Republican Party — not the Democrats.
Braswell, 58, hired Hugh Rodham to lobby Clinton to pardon a 1983 conviction for mail fraud and perjury stemming from mailing fake photos showing miraculous hair growth from an "anti-baldness" elixir he marketed.
Both Bill and Hillary Clinton have said they had no knowledge of the payment to Rodham. And Rodham said he has since returned the "success" fee he was paid by one of Braswell's companies, GB Data Systems.
Rodham won't be called to testify in the Senate Special Committee on Aging probe, but he remains under investigation by the House Government Reform Committee.
Ain't gonna happen. Why don't they save the money to spend on more "superproductive taxcuts." What a waste of time.
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